Baby Blues
by poestheblackcat
Summary: The first time Uncle Lin-Lin meets his baby niece. Part of the Kimi 'verse, which features Eliot as a single dad. The other stories in the 'verse can be found in my story collection "Twenty-Three Chromosomes." I highly recommend reading those first.


Summary: The first time Uncle Lin-Lin meets his baby niece. Part of the Kimi 'verse, which features Eliot as a single dad. The other stories in the 'verse can be found in my story collection "Twenty-Three Chromosomes," in Chapters 3, 13, 15, 19, and 21. I highly recommend reading those first.

AN: You know this if you've read the other stories in this 'verse, but I feel like I should explain it again: The Kimi stories feature Eliot from _Leverage_ and Lindsey from _Angel_ as his brother, but they are also a crossover with _Close to Home_. However, my 'verse is an AU of the show, since instead of having *spoilers* Jack die at the end of Season 1, I had Annabeth and the baby die. Jack, of course, is Lindsey in this story.

I basically wrote this for all those wonderful people who read and reviewed my birthday challenge collection "Twenty-Three Chromosomes" – it took almost half a year, but the Kimi 'verse is finally back by sort-of popular demand!

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**Baby Blues**

"What on earth are you doing to that poor baby?"

Eliot stops trying to wrestle the stinky diaper off of his daughter's bottom and gapes up at his twin brother, who is standing several feet away with a bemused expression on his face.

Oh shit.

He hadn't told Lindsey about having a kid because…well, because it happened so soon (not _soon_, but not long enough) after Lindsey had lost his own baby girl and wife in an accident that had killed both of them in one fell swoop, and Eliot hadn't wanted to bring up bad memories by talking about his new parenthood.

"Uhh…"

Lindsey raises his eyebrows at him and walks over to the bench where Eliot has spread out the contents of his daughter's diaper bag. He snorts and shakes his head at the state of things: the unused diapers scattered haphazardly among the packet of baby wipes, the baby powder and the rash cream, and of course, the miserable, wailing baby lying on the blanket with her soiled diaper half off.

"Need a hand with that?" he asks, and motions Eliot back and up off of the bench. "Move."

Eliot gets up because what else can he do? The anguished crying of the baby is starting to draw nasty looks from the other parents at the park, and Eliot knows that a Caucasian man with an Asian-looking baby in a small town in Japan is already something to point and stare at without the upset state of the baby into the bargain.

"Hey there," Lindsey says to Baby Kimiko, while squirting a dollop of hand sanitizer on his hands, as if it's the most natural thing in the world to come out of nowhere to help Eliot change his daughter's diaper, "Aren't you a little beauty? Gonna give your daddy a world of trouble when you grow up, huh? Aren't ya, princess? Silly Daddy doesn't know what the hell he's doing, does he? Nuh-uh, he doesn't. Good thing Uncle Lindsey happened to be in the neighborhood, huh? Gonna get you into a nice dry diaper. How about that? Sound good?"

All through the soothing murmuring, his hands work busily and expertly to wipe the little bottom and exchange the soiled diaper for a new one.

Kimiko had settled down with a watery hiccup when Lindsey had begun ministering to her needs and now stares up at the man who is changing her diaper so nicely, not like the other man with the clumsy hands. She burbles approvingly at him.

"There," Lindsey says, refastening the tiny onesie over the diaper cover, "All done." He sanitizes his hands again and holds the bottle out to Eliot, who takes it and does the same.

"Thanks," he says gruffly, not knowing how to even start the awkward conversation that he knows they're going to have to have now.

Lindsey makes a sound that signifies that he'd heard Eliot, but doesn't say anything. He picks Kimiko up in his arms and…and just holds her, looking down at her little face, at the features in it that already proclaim her to be Eliot's flesh and blood, yet that are so different from his own little girl's.

"Where's her mom?"

Eliot clears his throat. "Teaching a class," he answers uneasily, "Dance studio in town. She said I could take Kimi to the park. Bond a little, I guess."

"Kimi? That's her name?" Lindsey asks, not taking his eyes off of the baby's face.

"Kimiko Marie," Eliot says quietly. "She's three months old."

"Huh."

One of the unused diapers flutters in a sudden breeze, so Eliot moves to pack everything back up in the bag.

"You don't live with them?" Lindsey asks. It's obvious; Eliot hadn't known how to change a goddamn diaper, and the kid's already three months old.

Eliot knows what Lindsey means by asking that question; he wants to know what this child's mother means to Eliot, what this baby means to him. He wants to know if Eliot's doing right by his new family. He also knows what Eliot does for a living and the danger he might put this baby and her mother in, even if his new job isn't in the same range of danger as his old job used to be.

"No," Eliot says simply, "Nao wants to raise her on her own. I guess at this point, I should be happy she let me pay for the house." Eliot sits down next to Lindsey and huffs out a soft laugh, "She's pretty stubborn about how she wants to raise this kid. And she wants to do it all on her own."

"Huh," says Lindsey again. "But she lets you visit?"

"Visit, yeah," Eliot nods, "I can visit as much as I like, but we talked and…" Eliot runs a hand through his hair, "and we're not really…We could live together for Kimi, but it wouldn't be much more than that, you know? Nao's got her life and it doesn't fit with mine. There's some…personality issues too, I guess. We're not really…" He shrugs uncomfortably.

Eliot never has been the kind of guy to settle down, and it was fortunate, really, that he had a kid with a woman who doesn't want him to take care of her. They like each other well enough, but aside from that one night, they'd found out during the course of her pregnancy that they would much rather be friends than lovers. The financial issue had been tricky, but he'd finally been able to break down and convince the high-spirited, independent woman to let him pay some kind of child support at least.

Lindsey laughs softly. "I always told you your one night stands would get you in trouble someday." He looks at Eliot now. "Didn't I tell you to call me if you ever knock a girl up?"

Before, that had been a joke between the two of them – 'for legal issues.' Now? No joke. It's real and it's personal and it _hurts_.

Eliot bites his lip. "I'm sorry. I thought…"

Lindsey nods and hands Kimi over. "I get it. You didn't want to…" He breaks off with a sigh. "I'm okay now, you know? I'm doing okay," he says, nodding, but swallowing hard, his tongue speaking glib reassurances while his mind, as always, betrays him by bringing up memories of a little golden-haired angel who had greeted him with a wide toothless grin every night when he came home from a hard day's work. That inevitably leads his thoughts towards his smart, beautiful, funny, _dead_ wife, and then on to drowning himself in a bottle.

"That's good," Eliot says softly, not really believing him, but what else can he say? He shifts the baby in his arms, prompting her to start fussing again.

Seeing that, Lindsey shakes his head at him and chuckles. "Oh, you've got a lot of learning to do, El," he says, reaching out, "Beginning with how to hold that poor baby so she's not hurting her neck."

Hurting her neck? Oh shit! Shit shit shit! What if he maims her for life?

As if reading his mind, Lindsey says, "You're not gonna break her that easy," as he adjusts Eliot's grip so that the baby's head is supported. "There, that's better," he says, and Kimi evidently agrees because the soft whimpers stop immediately. Within half a minute, she's asleep in his arms.

Eliot stares at his daughter, his child, _his_ baby, and wonders why God chose him to be her father, not Lindsey. Lindsey's obviously the better choice. They've both had dangerous jobs, but Lindsey got out of that and proved that he's capable of living a normal life. At least, until tragedy had struck.

"Don't waste the time you have with her," Lindsey says softly, watching the two of them, "You don't get a second chance. Take it from me. One moment, you have everything, and the next?" He presses his lips together. "Tell her you love her every chance you get. Make sure she knows that you'd do anything for her. Do that and you'll be fine."

Eliot watches his daughter sleep and finds himself unconsciously breathing in sync with her. "I've never been this scared in my life," he confesses in a whisper, almost afraid to say it out loud.

Lindsey smiles, "I know," he says quietly, patting his shoulder, "I've been there. You'll do fine."

Eliot nods and clears his throat, sniffing a little. "Uh, Linds?" he says hesitantly, "How do I stand up without waking her up?"

He needn't have worried; Lindsey's mirth at his predicament wakes Kimi up anyway.

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AN: I know nothing about babies or changing diapers (seriously, I googled "how to change a diaper"), so if there's anything wrong with this, blame the internet.


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